Figured web and method of making the same.



P. H. WALSH.

HGURED WEB AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 1. 1915- 1 1 99,5 1 3 Patented Sept. 26, 1916. 5

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK H. WALSH, OF MELROSE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO HERBERT TAYLOR, OF DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

'FIGUR-ED WEB AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME.

Application filed October 1, 1915.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, PATRICK H. WALSH, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Melrose, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in F igured WVebs and Methods of Making the Same, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to produce a figured web of loose textile fibers, and my method for producing such web is to feed side by side a plurality of strands of loose fibers, to unite the strands into a web by interlocking the outstanding free ends of the fibers, and in some cases to feed cross wise some portions of the web relatively to other portions whereby the cross-fed portions are offset laterally from the other portions. In order to produce stripes or other figures in the web I use strands which differ in appearance, either in color or in any other respect which will enable one strand to be distinguished from another. By employing strands which have different appearances the web produced thereby is in the first instance striped, and the stripes are initially straight. If a web having straight stripes is desired, the cross-feeding or offsetting operation would be omitted; but if it is desired to produce some other figure, the striped web would be subjected to the cross-feeding operation hereinbefore mentioned.

For the purpose of strengthening the unions between the strands the web may be subjected to the action of carding cylinders, and for the purpose of altering or converting the initially striped figure of the web one of said cylinders may be moved endwise with relation to the other or others while the cylinders are rotating to advance the web. The eiiect of so moving one cylinder is to offset the stock thereon relatively to that on the other or others, and such 0H- setting transforms the initially straight stripes of the web into some other figure the form of which depends upon the width, and arrangement of the stripes, upon the speed, frequency, and direction of the successive cross-feed movements, and upon the rim speed of the cylinders. For example, if the rim speed is relatively slow and the crossfeed movements are rapid, the figure produced thereby may be a checkered figure.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 26, 1916.

Serial No. 53,569.

On the other hand, if the rim speed is relatively rapid and the cross-feed movements are comparatively slow and substantially continuous, the web and stripes would assume a serpentine form. The cross-feed in each direction may be continuous or intermittent, and may be reversed with or without dwell, depending upon the figure de sired.

The cross-feed is capable of so many modifications that it would not be practicable to attempt to illustrate the many forms of mechanism capable of producing them, and I have accordingly shown only one form of mechanism for producing a crossfeed movement, such mechanism in the present instance being designed to produce a checkered figure.

The accompanying drawings are somewhat conventional and are made so purposely to illustrate the invention as simply as possible.

The invention is capable of being practised by a carding machine; and while it is possible to adapt a carding machine for the purposes of the invention, the latter does not depend upon the use of a carding machine. For the purpose of eifecting the cross-feed hereinbefore mentioned it is only necessary to employ two cooperative cylinders having card clothing and to impart endwise reciprocation of some kind to one of them, and such cylinders would not per se constitute a carding machine.

In adapting a carding machine to produce a web having a figure other than straight stripes, I provide mechanism for moving the dofier cylinder endwise with relation to the main cylinder. The stock on the dofier has the ultimate figure and is stripped from the dof'fer in the form of a web and is conveyed away from the stripper by any suitable means, such as a traveling apron, which will preserve its web formation and figure.

hen a carding machine is employed to practice the invention it would not be practicable to impart the cross-feed movements to the main cylinder because of the workers and other cylinders which cooperate with the main cylinder, but if the invention were practised by a simpler machine having no workers or other cylinders cooperating with the first cylinder it would be possible to accomplish substantially the same result by imparting the cross-feed movements to the first cylinder instead of the second cylinder. This broad aspect of the invention may be better understood after further description.

Of the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a carding machine provided with mechanism adapted to produce a checkered web. The direction of feed is from right to left. Fig. 2 represents a top plan view of the feed rolls and creel included in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a top plan view of the delivery end of the machine. Fig. 4: represents a side elevation, on a larger scale, of the mechanism which imparts cross-feed movement to the dofier. Fig. 5 represents an elevation looking from the delivery end toward the feed end of the mechanism shown by Fig. 4.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts wherever they occur.

The two cylinders necessary for producing offset portions in the web are indicated respectively at 10 and 11. These cylinders are, in the event of employing a carding machine, the main cylinder and dofier respectively. In any event, they are covered respectively with card clothing 10 and 11 (Fig. 4:).

The strands of loose-fibered stock which are to be united side by side to form a web are indicated in Fig. 2 at a, a and b, I). These strands may be taken from any convenient source, and as one example of such source I have illustrated conventionally a creel which is indicated as a whole at c. In order to produce, in the first instance, a striped web, the strands taken from the creel or other source 0 will have different appearances either in color or in some other respect. In the present instance the strands a, and a, will be similar, and the strands b and b will be similar, although the appearance of the strands a, a will be different from the strands b, b. As shown by Fig. 2 the strands are arranged in pairs, that is to say, two strands of like appearance are fed side by side, and next to them two similar strands of some other appearance are fed side by side, each such pair of strands being thus adapted to be united, as will be understood after further description, to form a single stripe in the web. It will be understood that the initially striped character of the web may be varied as desired by varying the arrangement of the spools (Z according to the color or other appearance of the strands carried by them.

The strands are drawn from the creel, in the present instance, by cooperative feed rolls 12 and 13, and are guided to said rolls by stationary guide pins 7. As the strands pass between the feed rolls they are flattened to such extent that the free ends of the fibers standing out from them become interlocked with each other, the whole number of strands being thus united in the form of a web, as indicated at w in Fig. 2. I have shown strands of only two varieties in the present instance, all the strands a, a being similar in appearance, and all the strands l), I) being similar in appearance. For convenience of description, though not intending to imply any undue limitation, strands a, a may be considered white, and the strands b, b may be considered black. The result of such combination of strands, as they pass between the feed rolls, is a web having alternate white and black stripes a 5 each white stripe being composed of two white strands and each black stripe being composed of two black strands.

If it is desired to produce a simple striped web nothing more need be done to accomplish the desired result than to convey away the web w as the latter leaves the feed rolls, unless it be desired to more firmly unite the strands, in which event the web may be passed between other cooperating rolls, and the latter may be smooth or may be provided with card clothing, as desired. The present invention, however, contemplates the production not only of simple stripes, but of more complicated figures, and accordingly I have shown additional means for converting the simple striped figure into another figure.

Inasmuch as the principal elements of a carding machine are included in Fig. 1, I will describe them as they are. The web w is carried from the feed rolls to the main cylinder by cylinders 14 and 15, and in the course of passing over the main cylinder it is operated upon by the usual workers 16. For the sake of simplicity the usual strippers are omitted. Although a fancy is indicated at 17 it has no special significance. The web is transferred from the main cylinder to the dofier 11, and is dofied from the latter by any suitable means such as a smooth stripper roll 18, and is taken up by an endless traveling apron 19; but any other suitable take-up capable of preserving the Web formation, a winding roll for example, could be substituted. The web lying upon the apron 19 is indicated at 10.

As hereinbefore stated, the apparatus for converting the initially striped figure of the web w into some other figure requires endwise reciprocation or cross-feed movement of one principal cylinder with relation to the other; and the two principal cylinders which are, in the case of a carding machine,

movement to the dofler is shown best by Figs. 4 and 5. For this purpose the shaft 20 of the doffer is extended through and beyond its bearing 21 on the main frame 22, and is provided with cooperative collars 23, said collars being fixed to the shaft. These collars embrace studs or anti-friction rolls 24- carried by an operating lever 25. The fulcrum member of this lever is indicated at 26. A stud or anti-friction roll 27 is carried by the lower end of lever 25 and occupies a cam groove 28 formed in a barrel or cylinder cam 29. In the present instance the cam groove has active portions and dwelling portions which are sufficiently shown by Fig. 5 and do not require special designation. Any suitable mechanism may be employed for driving the cam member 29, and it will be understood that the speed of rotation in every case will be determined according to the proportions of the figure desired, and at the same time the rim speed of the dofi'er will be taken into consideration to effect the necessary ratio as between the rim speed and the frequency of cross-feed movements.

According to the mechanism shown, the cam member 29 is aflixed upon a shaft 30, and a spur gear 31 is also fixed upon the said shaft. This gear is driven by a pinion indicated conventionally at 32 in Fig. 4. Pinion 32 is affixed upon a countershaft 33 which also has a pulley 34. A belt 35 drives the pulley 34. The driving pulley for the belt 35 may be mounted upon any one of the several shafts of the carding machine, or, if desired, it may be mounted upon a special shaft. In the present instance it is mounted upon the shaft 36 of the main cylinder and is indicated at 37.

The dolfer, as shown by solid lines in Fig. 5, is at the left-hand extreme of its crossfeed movement, and dotted lines are included to indicate its position when it is at the other extreme of cross-feed movement. The mechanism shown and described for effecting the cross-feed movement causes a dwell at the end of each cross-feed movement, and each movement from right to left or from left to right is continuous. These movements are sufficiently rapid to produce the checkered figure shown by Fig. 3. It would be within the scope of the present invention to move the dofi'er intermittently or step by step in one or both directions, and although the mechanism shown would not produce such movement it may be readily understood that such movement would be produced by changing the cam path 28 or by substituting some other form of mechanism for operating the lever 25 step by step in one or both directions. It may also be readily understood that the dwelling portions of the cam may be omitted and that the cross-feed movements of the dofi'er may be as nearly continuous as is consistent with a reversal of direction. In case it should be desired to reciprocate the doffer without any appreciable dwell at the ends of its crossfeed movement, a continuously rotatingcrank and a connecting rod running from the latter to the collars 23 could be substituted for the cam 29 and lever 25.

It would be impossible to determine how many variations could be produced in the figure of the web w, for the number, colors or other appearance, and combination of strands fed to the machine are capable of many variations, and the speed, frequency, and character of the cross-feed movements are capable of many variations, while the rim speed of the dofi'er is capable of variation, and all these possible variations may be combined as desired.

I claim:

1. The hereindescribed method of obtaining a figured web, which consists in feeding longitudinally and side by side in contiguous relation a plurality of loosefibered strands of different appearances, uniting such strands in web-forming relation by carding them, and taking up such web in web form.

2. The hereindescribed method of obtaining a figured web, which consists in feeding longitudinally and side by side in contiguous relation a plurality of loose-fibered strands of different appearances, uniting such strands in web-forming relation by interlocking the outstanding ends of some of the fibers thereof, cross-feeding some portions of such web relatively to other portions, and taking up such web in web form.

3. The hereindescribed method of obtaining a figured web, which consists in feeding longitudinally and side by side in contiguous relation a plurality of loose -fibered strands of different appearances, uniting such strands in web-forming relation by interlocking the outstanding ends of some of the fibers thereof, crossfeeding successive portions of such web alternately in opposite directions, and taking up such web in web form.

4. The hereindescribed method of obtaining a figured web, which consists in feeding longitudinally and side by side in contiguous relation a plurality of loose-fibered strands of different appearances, uniting such strands in web-forming relation by in terlocking the outstanding ends of some of the fibers thereof, cross-feeding successive portions of such web intermittently, and taking up such web in web form.

5. The hereindescribed method of obtaining a figured web, which consists in feeding longitudinally and side by side in contiguous relation a plurality of loose-fibered strands of difierent appearances, uniting such strands in web-forming relation by interlocking the outstanding ends of some of the fibers thereof, cross-feeding successive portions of such Web intermittently and alternately in opposite directions, and taking up such Web in Web form.

' 6. A Web consisting of substantially parallel but intertwined textile fibers, said fibers differing in appearance and being arranged in groups according to their appearance.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

PATRICK H. WALSH.

7 Copies of this. patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

